EP 0 564 953 A1 has disclosed the practice of using a heating tube, provided with a heating wire coil, during an insufflation of CO2 or N2O gas into a biological body, wherein the gas is guided to an insufflation instrument through said heating tube and heated to approximately the body temperature of the patient in the process. A temperature sensing device is integrated into the distal region of the heating tube. The temperature of a gas volume supplied to the body, which was registered by the temperature sensor, can no longer be modified by the heating provided in the heating tube; all that can be modified is the temperature of a subsequently supplied gas volume.
In accordance with DE 10 2006 019 402 A1, the gas supplied to a patient in the case of a machine for transnasal insufflation (TNI) is heated to a temperature lying approximately 10 K above the ambient temperature. Depending on the ambient temperature registered by an ambient temperature sensor, an intended gas temperature of the gas at the outlet of a humidifier is determined and a heating power of the humidifier heating is controlled in such a way that an actual gas temperature is as close as possible to the intended gas temperature.
In accordance with DE 692 23 723 T2, the ambient temperature of the surrounding atmosphere is registered in a respiratory air humidifier comprising an ambient temperature sensing device, and a gas outlet temperature is calculated depending on the ambient temperature in order to selectively supply heating means with energy so as to reduce the condensation of the moistened gas.
DE 10 2005 049 676 63 has disclosed a method for contactless determination of the body core temperature of a human, wherein the surface temperature of the human is registered at a body measurement point by means of a temperature sensor unit arranged at a distance from same and the sensor signal is transmitted to an evaluation unit. The body core temperature is deduced taking into account the difference between the surface temperature and an ambient temperature, wherein the ambient temperature is regulated or stabilized to a predetermined temperature by a stabilizing device. According to WO 2010/023255 A1, a temperature of a body is measured with the aid of a first and a second temperature sensor which are enclosed in a material, wherein a contact face contacts the body and the first and the second temperature sensor are arranged at different heights over the contact face. In the aforementioned methods, an ambient temperature is not registered precisely.
DE 198 00 753 A1, which is not part of the generic prior art, discloses a sensor for a noninvasive temperature measurement of a fluid flowing in a tube, wherein the temperature of the fluid to be measured is established from the heat flow behavior of the fluid and externally measured temperatures. DD 87 677 B1, which is likewise not part of the generic prior art, describes a device for measuring the goods temperature of liquid and highly viscous masses, comprising a rod-shaped temperature sensing device which protrudes into the goods to be measured and which is connected to a thermostat, an amplifier and a display or registering machine. Here, one measuring point is provided at the tip of the temperature sensing device and another one is provided on the shaft thereof. A corrected thermoelectric voltage is established by virtue of the fact that the difference of the thermoelectric voltages, multiplied by a constant dependent on the structure and the setup of the sensing device and the goods to be measured, is added to the thermoelectric voltage at the measuring point at the sensing device tip. A thermostat is used for switching off the influence of the ambient temperature. Furthermore, GB 2 131 175 A, which is not part of the generic prior art, discloses a probe inserted into the wall of a combustion chamber, said probe comprising two elongate bodies separated from one another, which each contain a distal and a proximal temperature sensing device. The proximal end of the probe can be kept at a controlled temperature by means of a cooling liquid. An ambient temperature is not established in the aforementioned devices either.